19 Rickreall as seen from Google Earth view with Burch House and Burch Cemetery locations identified by Jerry Olson’s KMZ file. he was offered a position as a supreme judge of the Provisional Government (a settler government that existed in the Oregon Country from May 2, 1843 until March 3, 1849). Ultimately Ford declined the judge position and possibly changed the course of history in Oregon with regards to slavery. As early as 1843, Oregon did not allow slavery. However, Oregon also had several exclusion laws that prevented African Americans from mingling amongst the population. Additionally, the slavery prohibition at the time was apparently loosely enforced, if at all. When Ford left Missouri, he brought six of his 13 slaves with him. The slaves were the Holmes family minus three of their children, who were sold by Ford prior to their departure. Ford had promised to release the family upon their arrival in Oregon, but only after his farm was developed and productive. (Oregon Encyclopedia) Ford abandoned this promise and only released the parents, Robin and Polly Holmes, and one infant child from their bondage in 1850 while keeping four of their other children on his farm as slaves. One child had died on Ford’s farm. Fearing for their welfare and accusing Ford of holding the children illegally, Holmes demanded their release. In response, Ford The final resting places of surveyors Burch, Carr, and Ford as identified by Jerry Olson’s KMZ file. threatened to send the entire Holmes family back to Missouri as slaves. Holmes filed suit in what became a landmark case in Oregon law. (Oregon Encyclopedia) Ford was sitting on the territorial legislature at the time and Holmes did not prevail initially. Three different judges failed to rule on the case despite clear prohibitions on slavery. Fortunately, in 1853 President Pierce appointed a new chief justice to the Territorial Supreme Court. Justice George Williams wasted no time in ruling in Holmes’s favor and ordered the children returned. Holmes v. Ford became the definitive case in Oregon, confirming it an anti-slavery state. Voters supported the ruling in 1857 when they voted down a proposal to make Oregon a slave state. The Holmes family went on to run a successful plant nursery in Marion County. It seems quite likely this was one of the first, if not the first, African-American owned nursery in the Willamette Valley, but no information was found to support or deny this. After Robin’s death, in 1870 Polly was listed as a resident in an insane asylum in Portland, and nothing more is known of her life. Had Ford ascended to the position he was offered on the court or had greater power in the legislature, the outcome of this case could have potentially changed the slavery question in Oregon for a time. As we know now, the winds of change were in the air and a bloody civil war to ultimately decide the question was not far off. Ford may have left “wild” marks on the landscape, but his most definitive mark on our history may have been his loss in the courtroom. References • James K. Polk, Wikipedia (Accessed May 21, 2023). • Provisional Government, Wikipedia ((Accessed June 1, 2023). • Independence Monitor, July 25, 1913, “The first history of Polk County in brief.” • The Oregon Statesman, May 16, 1940, “Bits for Breakfast.” • The Oregon Statesman, November 15, 1930, “Bits for Breakfast.” • Oregon Encyclopedia, “Holmes v. Ford” by Greg Nokes. • Jerry Olson, Google Earth kmz file “Waymarks For Surveyors.” • Jerry Olson, “Short Biographies of all of the Surveyors and Individuals Associated with the Surveyor General’s Office in Oregon 1851–1910” https://www.olsonengr.com/surveying-history/ general-land-office-surveyors-of-oregon/. Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org The Lost Surveyor
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